Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party, Shadow Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) under the previous Government, Australia finalised 11 trade agreements; and

(b) the previous Government's ambitious trade agenda lifted the share of Australia's trade covered by free trade agreements from 27 per cent under Labor in 2013 to almost 80 per cent by 2022;

(2) acknowledges that expanding and diversifying market access has delivered significant benefits to our nation's economy, particularly businesses, industries and communities in regional and rural Australia; and

(3) calls on the Government to:

(a) ensure that the benefits from trade can continue by immediately acting to ensure that the Australia-UK Free Trade Agreement and the Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement are entered into force this year; and

(b) prioritise the negotiation, and economically successful delivery of, the Australia-European Free Trade Agreement.

I think the coalition government from 2013 to 2022—and I think you'd agree with me, Deputy Speaker Buchholz—will go down as one of the great governments since Federation. What an economy! What a thing we handed over to the new Labor government! Economically, we had low unemployment rates. The now Prime Minister didn't know the unemployment rate, but the unemployment rate that we handed over to them had a big number 3 in front of it, which hadn't been seen for 50 years. We'd done taxation reform, lowering taxes both for individuals and for small business. We managed a pandemic such as we hadn't seen for 100 years. Australia, by every measure during that pandemic—whether you look at it economically or you look at the low fatalities compared to other countries throughout the world—was a great, stellar performer. We also had high vaccination rates. How would you mark the previous government from '13 to '22? You'd give them very high marks on most of the important ways that you judge a government.

The other one, the one that we want to talk about today, is trade. Deputy Speaker Buchholz, you know about this; you're a regional MP as well. We all know how important trade is to the health of our economy. I just want to go through some of the amazing statistics that we as a government achieved in the trade area through the last nine years. You may know, Deputy Speaker, that Australia has made 16 bilateral trade agreements with other countries. Do you know how many of them were put into force by a coalition government? Thirteen of them, and there are multilateral agreements as well.

So what does that mean in a practical sense? In a practical sense, it means this. When we came to government in 2013, around 27 per cent of the goods and services that we export were covered by a free trade agreement. Do you know what it is now, Deputy Speaker? You might be surprised to hear--no, you wouldn't be surprised, because you'd be all over this. It's now nearly 80 per cent. That's what we did in the last nine years of government. You want good access to markets for your goods and services, and we instituted free trade agreements that increased the proportion of our goods and services covered by free trade agreements from just over 20 per cent to 80 per cent, an amazing legacy that we've left the new government.

With which countries did we do that? During that time, we signed free trade agreements with Korea, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Peru and Indonesia, as well as regional agreements across the Indo-Pacific, including the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations Plus; the CPTP, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership; and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. Again, this is a wonderful legacy that the previous government has left the new government.

We also made two very important agreements just before the election. One was with the UK, and this is very exciting. The UK historically, way back, used to be our biggest trading partner. It hasn't been for a while, obviously, with its relationship with the European Union. But the agreement that we've signed with it is exceptionally comprehensive, and we think it's going to be a very strong trading partner with us. Last week I had the enjoyment of meeting the UK trade minister, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, and she is looking forward to our trade relationship growing over the next few years. The other very important one that we signed is the economic cooperation and trade agreement with India. I know a lot of countries were surprised when we pulled that one off. It is another very exciting agreement.

The onus is now on the new government. Those two agreements, the UK and India ones, haven't been brought into force yet. They need to go through committee work, in our treaties committee. So the new government needs to get a move on with both of those. If they get those put in force before January, that means we'll get tariff reductions when they come into force, and we'll get another tariff reduction when 1 January comes around, because that's often when that kicks in. They have some work to do there. The one big one left, which we we're already working on, is a free trade agreement with the European Union. This is a test for the new government. They haven't got a good record, compared to us, with free trade agreements, so the EU is a big test for this new government. I certainly encourage them not to use New Zealand as a template for the agreement. New Zealand just made an agreement with the EU, and they gave up many concessions with geographic indicators—that is, you can't use geographical names in products. There's always a lot of grey area, too, around sanctions, or what that free trade agreement might mean for New Zealand if they don't meet certain international obligations. It is very important that the new government be very careful around those things. We expect a liberalised deal, a thorough deal, so it's a big challenge for the government.

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is there a seconder?

Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The pandemic has certainly shown us how important our trade relationships are. It has also, obviously, exposed some fundamental weaknesses. Those opposite presided over an increasingly difficult relationship with China, our largest trading partner, that had direct and painful consequences for Australian producers—of everything from wine to barley, cotton, coal and lobsters—many from the electorates of honourable members in the chamber. It's clear that more could have been done over the previous decade to shield Australian exporters from this sort of pain. In fact, prior to the pandemic, the now Prime Minister, when he was the Leader of the Opposition, commissioned me to run an Indo-Pacific trade task force. We prepared a report looking at how we could best diversify our exports. He knew that we were too concentrated on one big market. We started our work in 2019 and watched up close as the 2020 trade shocks hit hard.

Labor's approach is to look at trade as a really important part of nation-building, to modernise the economy and, in turn, change Australian society for the better. I think we have seen that to some extent. However, I think Australia's trade position was weakened by having put too few eggs in too few baskets. Indeed, that was the title of our report. We looked into how we could have more eggs and more baskets. Unfortunately, under the previous Australian government, there was too much 'set and forget'. They turned up for the photo op and the announcements but then didn't do much afterwards. It's not as though it was not something that trade experts had warned us all about for years and years—particularly those non-tariff barriers. But what we ended up with was a narrowing export base of products—facing stiff market and non-market headwinds—concentrated in a handful of key markets. Worse than that, our resilience to trade shocks was eroded, given that excessive dependence on China. I think it was lazy, and it has cost us.

Fortunately, though, the new administration, under Anthony Albanese, has a plan. We've always believed in the power of trade to create jobs and economic development in Australia. We are the party of free, fair and open trade. We want to support our exporters to pursue new markets, because diversification, more eggs in more baskets, is the key. We've already seen a number of senior ministerial visits to major regional trading partners, such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Japan, and a special focus on revitalising our relationship with India. We'll be establishing a Trade 2040 Taskforce. Recently, ministers for the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations Plus met to discuss deepening trade cooperation in the Pacific, to support our Pacific family and their region's economic recovery. That group now includes Tuvalu and Vanuatu—important new members that Australia is committed to supporting as borders reopen and they re-engage in trade. This is obviously good not only for our international relationships but also for Aussie jobs, for local jobs. It is a fact that exporting businesses in Australia employ almost a third more staff than non-exporting businesses and, on average, pay 11 per cent higher wages—so good jobs in regional Australia paying higher wages.

There can be no doubt that we have inherited a massive trillion-dollar-debt and cost-of-living crisis, as inflation climbs and businesses struggle to attract workers. It's true that this is what we inherited from the former government. However, we're addressing this through putting in place the outcomes of the Jobs and Skills Summit, held a few days ago. Supporting both diversified and traditional relationships for trade is good for Australian businesses, it's good for Australian jobs, and it's good for Australian wages. Trade is a nation builder. And this government, under Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, will give it its due respect, but we'll do the work—the work that's required to grow our economy into the future.

Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm very happy to contribute to this debate on the motion by the member for Page about Australia's approach to trade. Labor has always supported fair and free trade, because, where trade is fair and unobstructed, with proper consideration given to social and environmental impacts, all countries can benefit. How they benefit and, more precisely, who benefits are questions with less clear answers. Certainly, there's evidence that, while trade liberalisation delivers aggregate economic growth, it can exacerbate inequality.

Without question, trade is complex, and it's not much good if our conversation about trade—or the conversation in the press or the wider community—is reduced to a fingerpainting version of the reality. The notice of motion lists the number of trade agreements settled under the former government, and it cites the coverage of tariff-free access as a proportion of Australia's trade. That's all well and good—and, of course, Labor was supportive of the pursuit of these agreements—but it doesn't really go to the detail and quality of the coalition's effort when it comes to their management of Australia's trading relationships as a whole. Needless to say, trade agreements are not worth much where their details are ignored and are otherwise unenforceable. Nor are trade agreements worth much when the absence of effective domestic trade facilitation means that Australian companies, especially small and medium enterprises, are not able to take advantage of the opportunities that they create.

Not surprisingly, this motion doesn't acknowledge, for example, that the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement has been virtually useless in preventing the geoeconomic coercion that we've experienced in recent years. It doesn't acknowledge that the PACER Plus agreement between Australia, New Zealand and a number of Pacific island nations was settled in a form that Papua New Guinea and Fiji, the two largest Pacific island economies, refused to sign. That was unfortunate. But it was in keeping with the former government's mismanagement of our relationship with Pacific island nations, and we've seen some of the consequences of that mismanagement. It doesn't acknowledge that the Morrison government was quite happy to see, under the first version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an extension of monopoly rights granted to American pharmaceutical companies in respect of biologic medicines that would likely have increased costs to the PBS by several hundred million dollars each and every year.

Trade agreements these days cover a much wider range of matters than just tariffs and market quotas. Indeed, they often involve concessions that are the very opposite of free trade, like the example that I've just given: extending monopoly rights to big pharmaceutical companies in the United States, to the detriment of our bottom line. Under the previous government, such concessions also included the preparedness to do away with labour market testing for some categories of temporary foreign workers, and the preparedness to do away with actual skills testing in critical areas like the electrical trades. The coalition government was also prepared to put at risk Australia's capacity to regulate in the best interests of the Australian community, by agreeing to allow large foreign companies to challenge our laws through questionable international tribunals under so-called ISDS provisions. We saw that occur, at a significant cost—millions and millions and millions of dollars, and years of delay—in relation to our laws for plain packaging of tobacco.

The motion, and some of the speakers to the motion, oddly call for the urgent ratification of the trade agreements that are under consideration—the Australia-United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement and the Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement. I expect members know—they certainly should know—that those agreements are currently being considered in a proper and timely way by the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties. It's an important matter of parliamentary process and good governance that the JSCOT inquiry, with its opportunity for submissions and public hearings, including from the National Farmers Federation and all sorts of different sectoral stakeholders, be allowed to occur without undue haste, let alone the presumption that it's some kind of rubber stamp. It is not. Those opposite should remember that, when the former coalition government was rushing headlong into an extradition treaty with China, it was the JSCOT—and, more specifically, Labor's dissenting report—that urged caution.

It's also worth taking this opportunity to note that the JSCOT process with respect to trade agreements can and should be strengthened. That was the unanimous conclusion of the committee report tabled in the last parliament. It made five recommendations, including, crucially, calling for the independent analysis of the economic benefits and impacts of trade agreements and for a sensibly structured means by which key stakeholders—again, primary producers and others—can have better midstream access to the agreement-negotiating process. As in many areas of life, trade agreement making is a question not just of quantity, as is referred to in the motion, but of quality. We're a trading nation in Australia. We're hugely dependent on trade, and our economic, social and environmental wellbeing will be shaped by how we participate in and influence the global trading system, but we should do so according to the principles of fair, sustainable and free trade, because it's in our national, economic, strategic, environmental and security interests to do so.

Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Page for this motion, and I fully support it. Trade is critical to regional prosperity and opportunity. In my electorate of Nicholls, we produce 90 per cent of Australia's pears and 48 per cent of the nation's apples. Dairy is a major industry, and we provide 24 per cent of the national production and 28 per cent of the national exports. The Goulburn Valley has a gross regional product of $6.6 billion, of which $1.5 billion is down to agriculture. But that's only part of our story in Nicholls, a true food bowl, not just for Australia but for the world. Our food-processing industry generates $2.5 billion annually.

There are a few things that underpin our success and the export opportunities that we have. The critical one is water. We have a modernised and efficient irrigation network, and continued access to reliable water supply is essential. It's why we can't allow a further 450 gigalitres to be claimed for the environment without regard to the social and economic harm it will cause. We have innovative farmers and a reliable workforce, and we have a large and efficient freight and logistics industry that has grown alongside our agricultural output. Our location gives us access to major city markets and export routes.

The people of Nicholls understand the importance of agriculture and the value of exports, and they know the Nationals and the Liberals have always stood up for them by pursuing new markets and better terms of trade with the world. We have long led an ambitious trade agenda. Of Australia's 16 free trade agreements, 13 of them entered into force under coalition governments. We implemented nine free trade agreements in government, lifting the share of trade covered by the FTAs from 27 per cent in 2013 to over 70 per cent. That figure lifts to almost 80 per cent when you include the India and UK FTAs.

Australia's FTA with the UK is the most comprehensive and ambitious free trade agreement that Australia has, other than with New Zealand, and it was the first to be reached by the UK following its exit from the European Union. Labor couldn't even bring itself to acknowledge the FTA in its election trade policy and was slow to refer it to the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, which is required as part of Australia's treaty-making process. As a member of that committee, I look forward to playing my role in progressing the FTA, which has widespread support, including from the National Farmers Federation, Seafood Industry Australia, Australian Meat Industry Council, Sheep Producers Australia, Alcohol Beverages Australia, Law Council of Australia, Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Business Council of Australia and the Group of Eight.

Farmers will have improved access to more than 65 million UK consumers, who value safe, sustainably produced foods and beverages with the strong provenance that Australia—particularly my electorate of Nicholls—offers, whether that's fine wines from our great producers in Nicholls like Mitchelton, Tahbilk, Monichino, Tallis and Murchison Wines; our great dairy products; or Goulburn River Gold pears, to help APAL, Apple and Pear Australia Ltd, achieve its target of exporting 10 per cent of marketable production of apples and pears by 2027. Australia's trade agreement with India, negotiated and signed by the coalition government in April this year, opens a new era of growth for Australian exporters. It's an interim agreement, and the government has to remain ambitious and pursue a more comprehensive agreement once this one is ratified. Despite another regrettable delay, the agreement has also been referred to the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties for its review as required under Australia's processes.

The opportunities for meat, wool, wine and fresh fruit and vegetables are enormous as tariffs reduce over time. Tariffs on almonds, lentils, oranges, mandarins, pears, apricots and strawberries will be reduced, improving opportunities for Australia's horticultural industry to supply India's growing food demand. The growers in Nicholls, some of the best in the world, are ready to step up.

It was the coalition that initiated the FTA with the EU, seeking an ambitious and comprehensive deal to drive Australian exports, economic growth and job creation. The government must embrace that ambition, for it is not just the ambition of the Nationals and our Liberal friends; it is also the ambition of farmers, food processors and vignerons. Indeed, it is the ambition of regional communities who understand the prosperity, employment and success that strong trade policy delivers.

Fiona Phillips (Gilmore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm really delighted to speak on this motion today, to give an update on the fantastic work the Albanese Labor government is doing to progress free trade agreements in places like India, the UK and Europe. There is so much work going on to get these agreements back on track, after some fumbling by the previous government.

Our export industries on the New South Wales South Coast are hugely important. Our critical agricultural industries like dairy, beef and seafood, as well as wine, beverages, defence industry and manufacturing, rely heavily on exports to survive. We are also huge contributors to New South Wales's and Australia's export industry. We are very important economically. My electorate has the highest concentration of dairy cattle in New South Wales, and we have one of the oldest dairy industries in Australia. I come from a dairy farming family and I understand how important our exports are. Dairy exports, of course, are hugely important. Asia is the largest destination for Australian dairy, so a good working relationship with China is critical. That's why we're working on getting that relationship back on track.

We also produce significant beef exports, as well as exporting seafood, like shellfish and more. For example, the new Moruya shellfish hatchery, supported with Australian government funding, will provide an export-accredited packing centre to meet overseas demand for shellfish, which can also be used by other food producers to value-add, pack and dispatch their produce. Eurobodalla Shire Council expects that the $4.8 million facility, which finished construction in June, will be operational by November. That's just fabulous and a great support for our shellfish farmers in the Eurobodalla.

In the Shoalhaven, the Shoalhaven Export Hub was launched at the end of 2020. Again, it was supported with an Australian government grant to help small and medium enterprises to grow, to export and to increase local and regional jobs. The hub is a network of businesses working together to harness opportunities in global markets and build skills and contacts for industry-wide local benefit. Just last week, I was speaking with a local defence industry manufacturer, Air Affairs, who told me that, before COVID, international exports accounted for 70 per cent of their business. That's absolutely huge. The Shoalhaven is one of the biggest contributors to New South Wales's manufacturing exports—around 30 per cent.

Manildra Group is a family-owned manufacturing business in Bomaderry. It was the first Australian company to export gluten to the UK, in the early 1970s. The Australia-UK Free Trade Agreement is critical to helping Manildra access the UK market. Without it, the tariffs and quotas imposed on most of its products are prohibitive. The agreement will help Manildra expand its opportunities, so I'm really proud of the work we're doing to progress the UK free trade agreement. The Albanese government is working to complete all the parliamentary and legal processes on the Australia-UK Free Trade Agreement as quickly as possible. Early entry into force of this agreement will allow Australian exporters to take full advantage of the tariff cuts it provides. The agreement will open up opportunities across the dairy and beef industries. It will help manufacturers like Manildra, and it will eliminate tariffs on Australian wine, which by value is Australia's largest dutiable export to the UK. It will also enhance pathways for workers and young people to work in both countries—something I know our seasonal growers will also be happy about.

We are looking to advance the parliamentary process for the Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement, an interim agreement, while also resuming negotiations for a full, comprehensive economic cooperation agreement. The trade minister met with India's Minister of Commerce and Industry in June and committed to rapidly recommence negotiations on the full agreement.

We are restarting negotiations with the Europeans to get a good outcome on the EU free trade agreement. The Prime Minister brought these negotiations back on track during his June visit to Europe, and the next round of negotiations will start on 17 October. Ultimately, our negotiations with the EU will be concluded only when we have a good deal that is in our national interest and delivers commercially-significant new market access for our agricultural products. That will be good news for local farmers. Australian industry and consumers can be confident that we will drive a hard bargain, as we always do, to achieve an overall agreement of benefit to Australia. Our government is committed to securing Australia's global competitiveness in trade.

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers, the debate is now adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.

Sitting suspended from 13 : 26 to 16 : 0 8